Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://gijn.org/category/news/)
The murder of Slovakian journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, both 27, have sparked protests since the killings on February 25. On Friday, tens of thousands gathered at the Slovak National Uprising Square in Bratislava to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government and a thorough investigation of Kuciak’s death. Feature image by Tomáš Benedikovič.
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from July 15 to 21 finds Information Is Beautiful’s sharing its gallery of must-read data visualization books, Datajournalism.com highlighting pitfalls in creating charts, the FT analyzing the age of Wimbledon players, and WDR scrutinizing Germany’s opera repertoire.
Storybench identified four areas of emphasis – data, local news, social media, and business models – that will be crucial for journalism students to spend time on, and interviewed five journalism educators across the country who lead especially forward-looking programs and courses.
Ukraine’s largest bank is taking its battle with its former owners to US shores. In a civil lawsuit filed in the state court of Delaware, PrivatBank accuses Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennady Bogolyubov, the billionaires who owned the bank before it was nationalized three years ago, of large-scale money laundering in the United States.
The winners of the 2019 SOPA Awards were recently announced at a gala held by the Society of Publishers in Asia. Here’s a look at six of the inspiring investigations that were rewarded.
A record 350 journalists gathered in Tokyo over the weekend for Japan’s third investigative journalism conference, by far that nation’s largest and most sophisticated effort to network and train investigative reporters. The conference marks an important milestone for Japan’s beleaguered watchdog press, which has been under sustained assault by powerful political interests.
Following the suicide of Peru’s former president Alan García, the investigative group IDL-Reporteros has fielded accusations that their reporting into corruption caused his death. The team has also received serious threats. Its director Gustavo Gorriti responds in this editorial.
Freedom House’s 2018 Freedom in the World report, which was just released this week, signals an alarming trend: Democracy is in retreat. There were media freedom reversals in many countries spanning across regions, including long-standing democracies such as the United States and consolidated authoritarian regimes such as China and Russia.
With the backlash against democracy and anti-press sentiment growing, the need for investigations around issues such as corruption and climate change continues to rise. GIJN asked the leaders of our global community about what they see happening in investigative journalism around the world in 2019. Here’s what they told us.
Despite difficult reporting environments, journalists in sub-Saharan Africa produced some seriously impressive investigations in 2018. GIJN Africa editor Raymond Mpubani compiled a list of some of the top stories produced this year, published by outlets based in the region.
Here’s another fascinating look — through a recent US indictment — at the looting of Africa. This one involves alleged fraud tied to $2 billion in loans to state-owned companies in Mozambique, one of the world’s most indebted nations. Among the charges: conspiracy to violate U.S. anti-bribery law and to commit money laundering and securities fraud. Those state-owned firms are now reportedly bankrupt after defaulting on over $700 million in loan payments.
